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At least 1,045 records · Page 58Linked to original sources
USGS2009

A neotropical migrant bird's dilemma: where to stop for a good meal

To learn how migrating birds determine where to stop and find food, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Arizona University, and The University of Arizona studied the behavior of 28 species of neotropical migrant songbirds - warblers, flycatchers, tanagers, and vireos - along the lower Colorado River from 2001 to 2004. They found that, like interstate travelers greeted by restaurant billboards, songbirds flying over Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona, relied on the flowering of honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) to detect the availability of insects that they prey on. Understanding where and why migrant birds stop will help land managers better protect key habitats used by these tiny travelers.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2009

Lead poisoning in wild birds

Lead in its various forms has been used for thousands of years, originally in cooking utensils and glazes and more recently in many industrial and commercial applications. However, lead is a potent, potentially deadly toxin that damages many organs in the body and can affect all animals, including humans. By the mid 1990s, lead had been removed from many products in the United States, such as paint and fuel, but it is still commonly used in ammunition for hunting upland game birds, small mammals, and large game animals, as well as in fishing tackle. Wild birds, such as mourning doves, bald eagles, California condors, and loons, can die from the ingestion of one lead shot, bullet fragment, or sinker. According to a recent study on loon mortality, nearly half of adult loons found sick or dead during the breeding season in New England were diagnosed with confirmed or suspected lead poisoning from ingestion of lead fishing weights. Recent regulations in some states have restricted the use of lead ammunition on certain upland game hunting areas, as well as lead fishing tackle in areas frequented by common loons and trumpeter swans. A variety of alternatives to lead are available for use in hunting, shooting sports, and fishing activities.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2010

A sampling plan for riparian birds of the Lower Colorado River-Final Report

A sampling plan was designed for the Bureau of Reclamation for selected riparian birds occurring along the Colorado River from Lake Mead to the southerly International Boundary with Mexico. The goals of the sampling plan were to estimate long-term trends in abundance and investigate habitat relationships especially in new habitat being created by the Bureau of Reclamation. The initial objective was to design a plan for the Gila Woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis), Arizona Bell's Vireo (Vireo bellii arizonae), Sonoran Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia sonorana), Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra), Gilded Flicker (Colaptes chrysoides), and Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus); however, too little data were obtained for the last two species. Recommendations were therefore based on results for the first four species. The study area was partitioned into plots of 7 to 23 hectares. Plot borders were drawn to place the best habitat for the focal species in the smallest number of plots so that survey efforts could be concentrated on these habitats. Double sampling was used in the survey. In this design, a large sample of plots is surveyed a single time, yielding estimates of unknown accuracy, and a subsample is surveyed intensively to obtain accurate estimates. The subsample is used to estimate detection ratios, which are then applied to the results from the extensive survey to obtain unbiased estimates of density and population size. These estimates are then used to estimate long-term trends in abundance. Four sampling plans for selecting plots were evaluated based on a simulation using data from the Breeding Bird Survey. The design with the highest power involved selecting new plots every year. Power with 80 plots surveyed per year was more than 80 percent for three of the four species. Results from the surveys were used to provide recommendations to the Bureau of Reclamation for their surveys of new habitat being created in the study area.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2013

Use of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) habitat models to predict breeding birds on the San Pedro River, Arizona

Successful management practices of avian populations depend on understanding relationships between birds and their habitat, especially in rare habitats, such as riparian areas of the desert Southwest. Remote-sensing technology has become popular in habitat modeling, but most of these models focus on single species, leaving their applicability to understanding broader community structure and function largely untested. We investigated the usefulness of two Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) habitat models to model avian abundance and species richness on the upper San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona. Although NDVI was positively correlated with our bird metrics, the amount of explained variation was low. We then investigated the addition of vegetation metrics and other remote-sensing metrics to improve our models. Although both vegetation metrics and remotely sensed metrics increased the power of our models, the overall explained variation was still low, suggesting that general avian community structure may be too complex for NDVI models.

Arizona↗
USGS2017

Balancing habitat delivery for breeding marsh birds and nonbreeding waterfowl: An integrated waterbird management and monitoring approach at Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

The Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge (CCNWR) in the Mississippi River flood plain of eastern Missouri provides high quality emergent marsh and moist-soil habitat benefitting both nesting marsh birds and migrating waterfowl. Staff of CCNWR manipulate water levels and vegetation in the 17 units of the CCNWR to provide conditions favorable to these two important guilds. Although both guilds include focal species at multiple planning levels and complement objectives to provide a diversity of wetland community types and water regimes, additional decision support is needed for choosing how much emergent marsh and moist-soil habitat should be provided through annual management actions. To develop decision guidance for balanced delivery of high-energy waterfowl habitat and breeding marsh bird habitat, two measureable management objectives were identified: nonbreeding Anas Linnaeus (dabbling duck) use-days and Rallus elegans (king rail) occupancy of managed units. Three different composite management actions were identified to achieve these objectives. Each composite management action is a unique combination of growing season water regime and soil disturbance. The three composite management actions are intense moist-soil management (moist-soil), intermediate moist-soil (intermediate), and perennial management, which idles soils disturbance (perennial). The two management objectives and three management options were used in a multi-criteria decision analysis to indicate resource allocations and inform annual decision making. Outcomes of the composite management actions were predicted in two ways and multi-criteria decision analysis was used with each set of predictions. First, outcomes were predicted using expert-elicitation techniques and a panel of subject matter experts. Second, empirical data from the Integrated Waterbird Management and Monitoring Initiative collected between 2010 and 2013 were used; where data were lacking, expert judgment was used. Also, a Bayesian decision model was developed that can be updated with monitoring data in an adaptive management framework. Optimal resource allocations were identified in the form of portfolios of composite management actions for the 17 units in the framework. A constrained optimization (linear programming) was used to maximize an objective function that was based on the sum of dabbling duck and king rail utility. The constraints, which included management costs and a minimum energetic carrying capacity (total moist-soil acres), were applied to balance habitat delivery for dabbling ducks and king rails. Also, the framework was constrained in some cases to apply certain management actions of interest to certain management units; these constraints allowed for a variety of hypothetical Habitat Management Plans, including one based on output from a hydrogeomorphic study of the refuge. The decision analysis thus created numerous refuge-wide scenarios, each representing a unique mix of options (one for each of 17 units) and associated benefits (i.e., outcomes with respect to two management objectives). Prepared in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the decision framework presented here is designed as a decision-aiding tool for CCNWR managers who ultimately make difficult decisions each year with multiple objectives, multiple management units, and the complexity of natural systems. The framework also provides a way to document hypotheses about how the managed system functions. Furthermore, the framework identifies specific monitoring needs and illustrates precisely how monitoring data will be used for decision-aiding and adaptive management.

Missouri↗
USGS2022

Proceedings of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Wild Birds Webinar Series, August 2–5, 2021

In light of ongoing and geographically widespread highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks in wild birds throughout much of Eurasia during 2020–21, the Interagency Steering Committee for Avian Influenza Surveillance in Wild Migratory Birds disseminated an informational memorandum in January 2021 to highlight the need for enhanced surveillance and heightened awareness in North America. This was followed by coordination of this August 2021 international HPAI webinar series facilitated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services Training Program. In addition to heightening awareness, the webinars provided an opportunity for information exchange and facilitated virtual discussions between Federal, State, academic, and international partners on the ongoing Eurasian outbreak, lessons learned from the 2014–15 North American HPAI outbreak, and associated challenges and opportunities.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2015

Preliminary methodology to assess the national and regional impact of U.S. wind energy development on birds and bats

The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a methodology to assess the impacts of wind energy development on wildlife; it is a probabilistic, quantitative assessment methodology that can communicate to decision makers and the public the magnitude of these effects on species populations. The methodology is currently applicable to birds and bats, focuses primarily on the effects of collisions, and can be applied to any species that breeds in, migrates through, or otherwise uses any part of the United States. The methodology is intended to assess species at the national scale and is fundamentally different from existing methods focusing on impacts at individual facilities. Publicly available fatality information, population estimates, species range maps, turbine location data, biological characteristics, and generic population models are used to generate both a ranked list of species based on relative risk as well as quantitative measures of the magnitude of the effect on species' population trend and size. Three metrics are combined to determine direct and indirect relative risk to populations. A generic population model is used to estimate the expected change in population trend and includes additive mortality from collisions with wind turbines. Lastly, the methodology uses observed fatalities and an estimate of potential biological removal to assess the risk of a decline in population size. Data for six bird species have been processed through the entire methodology as a test case, and the results are presented in this report. Components of the methodology are based on simplifying assumptions and require information that, for many species, may be sparse or unreliable. These assumptions are presented in the report and should be carefully considered when using output from the methodology. In addition, this methodology can be used to recommend species for more intensive demographic modeling or highlight those species that may not require any additional protection because effects of wind energy development on their populations are projected to be small.

Scientific Investigations Report↗
USGS2008

Influenza A virus infections in land birds, People's Republic of China

Water birds are considered the reservoir for avian influenza viruses. We examined this assumption by sampling and real-time reverse transcription-PCR testing of 939 Asian land birds of 153 species. Influenza A infection was found, particularly among migratory species. Surveillance programs for monitoring spread of these viruses need to be redesigned.

Emerging Infectious Diseases↗
USGS2018

Introduction of Eurasian-origin H8N4 influenza A virus into North America via migratory birds

We identified a Eurasian-origin influenza A(H8N4) virus in North America by sampling wild birds in western Alaska, USA. Evidence for repeated introductions of influenza A viruses into North America by migratory birds suggests that intercontinental dispersal might not be exceedingly rare and that our understanding of viral establishment is incomplete.

Emerging Infectious Diseases↗
USGS2019

Non-anthropogenic diet-based oiling of predatory birds

Oiling of wildlife can have important consequences to individual animals and populations (Kingston 2002). Individual birds that are heavily oiled lose their ability to fly and may become ill or die from hypothermia, starvation, exhaustion, or drowning (Clark 1984, Rocke 1999). For example, large-scale oiling from the Exxon Valdez spill caused local declines in populations of many avian taxa (Irons et al. 2000). Although most oiling reports involve marine wildlife exposed to oil leaked from vessels or oil rigs, oiling also can occur in terrestrial environments, for example, via birds drinking water in puddles on asphalt roadways (Clark and Gorney 1987) or landing in oil field wastewater disposal facilities (Trail 2006, Ramírez 2010).

Journal of Raptor Research↗
USGS2019

Do parents synchronise nest visits as an antipredator adaptation in birds of New Zealand and Tasmania?

Birds with altricial offspring need to feed them regularly, but each feeding visit risks drawing attention to the nest and revealing its location to potential predators. Synchronisation of visits by both parents has been suggested as a behavioural adaptation to reduce the risk of nest predation. Under this hypothesis, higher risk of nest predation favours greater synchrony of parental feeding visits. We investigated this prediction over three timescales using nestling provisioning data from 25 passerine species in Tasmania and New Zealand. We estimated the extent to which parents actively synchronised their visits to the nest by comparing observed patterns of synchrony with those expected to occur at random. We found that in general, species did not synchronise visits more often than expected by chance. Species varied in the tendency to synchronise visits, but this variation was not explained by likely predation pressure in the distant evolutionary past: New Zealand endemic species, which evolved in the absence of mammalian nest predators, synchronised their visits as often as species which evolved with more diverse predatory guilds. Nest predation risk has increased over time in New Zealand due to introduced predators, but synchrony in visits also was not explained by manipulated predation risk: visit synchrony was equivalent between a predator-removal site and a site where predators remained. However, within one New Zealand species, visit synchrony was higher for mainland populations, which have been exposed to predatory mammals for c .800 years, than for a population on an offshore island to which predatory mammals were never introduced. We conclude that breeding birds may have some capacity to adapt the synchrony with which they provision over short evolutionary timescales. However, the lack of synchrony in most species suggests that either asynchrony provides benefits that outweigh the greater risk of predation, or synchrony incurs costs not compensated by reduced predation.

Tasmania↗
USGS2023

Potential effects of habitat change on migratory bird movements and avian influenza transmission in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway

Wild waterbirds, and especially wild waterfowl, are considered to be a reservoir for avian influenza viruses, with transmission likely occurring at the agricultural-wildlife interface. In the past few decades, avian influenza has repeatedly emerged in China along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), where extensive habitat conversion has occurred. Rapid environmental changes in the EAAF, especially distributional changes in rice paddy agriculture, have the potential to affect both the movements of wild migratory birds and the likelihood of spillover at the agricultural-wildlife interface. To begin to understand the potential implications such changes may have on waterfowl and disease transmission risk, we created dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models (dBBMM) based on waterfowl telemetry data. We used these dBBMM models to create hypothetical scenarios that would predict likely changes in waterfowl distribution relative to recent changes in rice distribution quantified through remote sensing. Our models examined a range of responses in which increased availability of rice paddies would drive increased use by waterfowl and decreased availability would result in decreased use, predicted from empirical data. Results from our scenarios suggested that in southeast China, relatively small decreases in rice agriculture could lead to dramatic loss of stopover habitat, and in northeast China, increases in rice paddies should provide new areas that can be used by waterfowl. Finally, we explored the implications of how such scenarios of changing waterfowl distribution may affect the potential for avian influenza transmission. Our results provide advance understanding of changing disease transmission threats by incorporating real-world data that predicts differences in habitat utilization by migratory birds over time.

Diversity↗
USGS2024

Identifying conservation introduction sites for endangered birds through the integration of lidar-based habitat suitability models and population viability analyses

Similar to other single-island endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers, the critically endangered ‘ākohekohe ( Palmeria dolei ) is threatened by climate-driven disease spread. To avert the imminent risk of extinction, managers are considering novel measures, including the conservation introduction (CI) of ‘ākohekohe from Maui to higher elevation habitats on the Island of Hawai’i. This study integrated lidar-based habitat suitability models (LHSMs) and population viability analyses (PVAs) to assess five candidate sites currently considered by managers for CI. We first developed an LHSM for the species’ native range on Maui. We then projected habitat suitability across candidate CI sites, using forest structure and topography metrics standardized across sensor types. Given the structural variability observed within the five candidate sites, we identified clusters of contiguous, highly suitable habitat as potential release sites. We then determined how many adult individuals could be supported by each cluster based on adult home range estimates. To determine which clusters could house the minimum number of ‘ākohekohe birds necessary for a stable or increasing future population, we conducted PVAs under multiple scenarios of bird releases. We found that canopy height and relative height 90 had the greatest effects on model performance, possibly reflecting ‘ākohekohe’s preference for taller canopies. We found that a small release of at least nine pairs of equal sex ratios were sufficient for an 80% chance of success and a <1% chance of extirpation in 20 years, resulting in a minimum release area of 4.5 ha in size. We integrated the results of the LHSM and PVA into an interactive web application that allowed managers to consider the caveats and uncertainties associated with both LHSMs and PVAs in their decision-making process. As climate change continues to threaten species worldwide, this research demonstrates the value of lidar remote sensing combined with species-specific models to enable rapid, quantitative assessments that can inform the increasing consideration of time-sensitive conservation introductions.

Hawaii↗
USGS1986

Acute oral toxicity of sodium cyanide in birds

Sensitivities of six avian species, black vulture ( Coragyps atratus ), American kestrel ( Falco sparverius ), Japanese quail ( Coturnix japonica ), domestic chicken ( Gallus domesticus ), eastern screech-owl ( Otus asio ), and European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ), to acute poisoning by sodium cyanide (NaCN) were compared by single dose LD50's. Three species, domestic chickens, black vultures, and turkey vultures ( Cathartes aura ), were dosed with NaCN to determine cyanide residues in those that died and also in survivors, in addition to postmortem fate. Three flesh-eating species (black vulture, American kestrel, and eastern screech-owl; LD50's 4.0–8.6 mg/kg) were more sensitive to NaCN than three species (Japanese quail, domestic chicken, and European starling; LD50's 9.4–21 mg/kg) that fed predominantly on plant material. Elevated concentrations of cyanide were found in the blood of birds that died of cyanide poisoning; however, concentrations in birds that died overlapped those in survivors. Blood was superior to liver as the tissue of choice for detecting cyanide exposure. No gross pathological changes related to dosing were observed at necropsy.

Journal of Wildlife Diseases↗
USGS1988

Brain cholinesterase activity of apparently normal wild birds

Organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides are potent anticholinesterase substances that have killed large numbers of wild birds of various species. Cause of death is diagnosed by demonstration of depressed brain cholinesterase (ChE) activity in combination with chemical detection of anticholinesterase residue in the affected specimen. ChE depression is determined by comparison of the affected specimen to normal ChE activity for a sample of control specimens of the same species, but timely procurement of controls is not always possible. Therefore, a reference file of normal whole brain ChE activity is provided for 48 species of wild birds from North America representing 11 orders and 23 families for use as emergency substitutes in diagnosis of anticholinesterase poisoning. The ChE values, based on 83 sets of wild control specimens from across the United States, are reproducible provided the described procedures are duplicated. Overall, whole brain ChE activity varied nearly three-fold among the 48 species represented, but it was usually similar for closely related species. However, some species were statistically separable in most families and some species of the same genus differed as much as 50%.

Journal of Wildlife Diseases↗
USGS2000

Characterization of poxviruses from forest birds in Hawaii

Two strains of avian pox viruses were isolated from cutaneous lesions in Hawaiian crows ( Corvus hawaiiensis ) examined in 1994 and a third from a biopsy obtained in 1992 from an infected bird of the Apapane species ( Himatione sanguinea ) by inoculation of the chorioallantoic membranes (CAM) of developing chicken embryos. The resulting proliferative CAM lesions contained eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusion bodies characteristic of pox virus infection. The pathogenicity of these three viruses in domestic chickens was mild as evidenced by the development of relatively minor lesions of short duration at the sites of inoculation. Their virulence in this host was similar to that of a fowlpox virus (FPV) vaccine strain and contrasted greatly with the ability of two field strains of FPV to produce extensive proliferative lesions. One of the Hawaiian crow pox virus isolates as well as the one originating from the Apapane species could be propagated in two secondary avian cell lines, QT-35 and LMH. A comparison of the restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) of the genomes of the two cell line-adapted viruses, generated by Eco RI digestion, revealed a limited degree of similarity. Moreover, neither profile was comparable to those of the two field isolates of FPV, which were almost indistinguishable from each other. Thus, based on the genetic distinctness of the two Hawaiian bird viruses, they appear to represent different strains of avipoxvirus.

Hawaii↗